Brazil - Portugal Preview: Ronaldo absent for Bento's side

Tom Coleman

The Real Madrid winger will not feature on Tuesday as he looks to shrug off tendonitis, on the back of scoring a match-winning hat-trick against Northern Ireland

Portugal face Brazil in a friendly encounter on Tuesday with their World Cup 2014 qualification hopes looking bright.

A Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick helped Paulo Bento's side recover from 2-1 down to win 4-2 at Windsor Park, to move two points clear of Russia at the top of Group F.

Portugal will, however, have to do without the services of the Real Madrid forward after he was ruled out with tendonitis on the back a match-winning display that saw him leapfrog Eusebio in the all-time goalscoring charts for the national side.

Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari, who had a five-year spell in charge of Portugal between 2003 and 2008, also has injury concerns, with defender Dani Alves (knee) and Hulk (thigh) set to miss the clash at the Gillette Stadium.

That could mean that Roma's Maicon is drafted in alongside David Luiz and Thiago Silva at the back, while Barcelona's big-money signing Neymar is set to spearhead his side's attack.

The Confederations Cup winners have only lost one game so far this year, a surprise 1-0 defeat to Switzerland, and will be looking to build as much momentum as possible before playing host to the World Cup in 2014.

Portugal are undefeated in their last six international outings, but have only beaten Brazil four times during their 19 previous meetings, the most recent being a 2-0 friendly win in 2007 when Simao and Ricardo Carvalho scored in the last 10 minutes.